It is well known in the medical community, and in particular, in hospitals, to use a centralized inventory system for dispensing and administering medications. In this system, medications provided by a pharmacy, for example, are temporarily stored in a centralized area or station for administration.
Caregivers who seek to administer to patients medications from the centralized storage area often transport the medications in an unsecured fashion, such as by loading the selected medications onto a movable cart, onto a tray, or even into their own pockets. Consequently, there are provided by a pharmacy, for example, several risks associated with unsecured transport, such as the wrong type or amount of medication being administered to a patient, the medication being stolen, or the mixing of medications where the medications are temporarily stored for administration.
Furthermore, little or no record is kept of the taking or dispensing of such medications, such as the type and dose of the medication, when and by whom the medication was removed, and to whom and at what time the medication was administered. Healthcare facilities are thus often inhibited from determining if the type and amount of medication given to a patient was appropriate, or whether any medication was administered at all.